Hacking the weather forecast
There are some companies that offer banners with the weather forecast. To tell you the truth I don’t really like their templates and I definitely dislike the huge title with the company’s name at the top.
Here’s how it goes: the thing is learning how they bring the weather data into your site, so that you can take the data and use your own design.
They use a javascript to embed a Flash movie.
Once you get the swf movie, SoThink decompiler lets us read its code.
There is a function that loads the data with a call to a server side script.
Once the parameters are understood the script can be summoned from any browser.
The variables printed out make sense. It includes city name, country, date, temperature, wind speed and distance and even the number of the image to be shown depending on the conditions (the order of the images has to be taken from the decompiled swf).
I create my own swf, load the data and done. Weather forecast with my own design.
Simple hack that allows webmasters to include a forecast in their site.
Cheers,
Gorka
* I’d rather not tell which company this hack is for so that nothing is changed, you can ask for it via email.